‘The Masked Singer’ Eagle Reveals He Learned He Had Pre-Existing Injury While Rehearsing For Show

The Masked Singer Eagle has been unmasked, and while he didn’t soar to the end, he did find out something about himself while competing on the Fox singing competition.

In a new interview with Us Weekly, the motorcycle-riding, red-bandana-wearing Eagle – aka Dr. Drew Pinsky – revealed that during his time on the Fox reality show he discovered he had an existing injury he didn’t know about.

Pinsky told the celebrity magazine that he was a trained opera singer as a child and that he even still sometimes sings the national anthem at sporting events. He didn’t have to audition for The Masked Singer, but he did have to train.

“Immediately when I started training, I realized there was something wrong with my voice. And it turns out I had a bleed on my [vocal] cords. And then I had a varices and the treatment was supposed to be lasers, but we couldn’t do that. So I had to get vocal rehab specialists to help me retrain my voice. It was crazy.”

Pinsky also detailed his surprising vocal injury to People, revealing that he sang all the way through his medical residency. Once he signed on to The Masked Singer, he started testing the waters again in karaoke bars and that’s when he realized “the upper- mid-range” of his voice was totally gone.

“I ended up pushing myself through it and it got worse. I went and saw a specialist and lo and behold I had a hemorrhage on my cords. When we healed the hemorrhage, I had a paresis on my cords.”

While only his wife initially knew about his role on The Masked Singer, Pinsky had to get creative about what was going on once a vocal coach started showing up at his house. Dr. Drew first tried to play it off as though he was getting training to sing the national anthem for Dodgers and Kings games, but when the vocal coach started showing up at his house three days a week, his son pressed him for information. That’s when Dr. Drew handed his son a nondisclosure agreement to sign.

Pinsky revealed that when he first started prepping for The Masked Singer he was preparing with Frank Sinatra and Michael Bublé songs and even American anthems. But once he put the Eagle costume on he realized, “This is a rock eagle.”

“So we started all over again and then that needed a bunch of vocal re-trainings too,” Pinsky said.

Pinsky was ultimately eliminated from the show after performing Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).”

In addition to Dr. Drew, singing celebs Johnny Weir, Laila Ali, and Richard Bevins have been eliminated and unmasked this season on the zany TV talent competition.

The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.